Read the excerpt from "a modest proposal."

i desire those politicians who dislike my overture, and may perhaps be so bold to attempt an answer, that they will first ask the parents of these mortals, whether they would not at this day think it a great happiness to have been sold for food at a year old, in the manner i prescribe, and thereby have avoided such a perpetual scene of misfortunes, as they have since gone through, by the oppression of landlords, the impossibility of paying rent without money or trade, the want of common sustenance, with neither house nor cloaths to cover them from the inclemencies of the weather, and the most inevitable prospect of intailing the like, or greater miseries, upon their breed for ever.

which sentence best paraphrases the passage?

a. swift maintains that, if asked, people who have lived in poverty their entire lives would say that they would rather have been sold for food at one year of age.

b. swift states that adults who have grown up in poverty have experienced a sequence of misfortunes, such as being unable to obtain food or clothing.

c. swift argues that poverty-stricken people have been oppressed and mistreated by landlords for being unable to pay rent with either money or traded goods.

d. swift challenges politicians to ask adults who have been raised in poverty questions before criticizing his proposal to impoverished people.